BEREA, Ohio -- Pat Shurmur is sticking with Brandon Weeden for Sunday's game against the 11-3 Broncos and never considered yanking him against the Redskins.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to him having a much better game this week against Denver," the Browns coach said of his rookie QB. "I think that's where the focus needs to be."

Despite Weeden's struggles during the 38-21 loss to the Redskins -- including two third-quarter interceptions that led to touchdowns -- Shurmur felt he gave the Browns a better chance to win than Colt McCoy.

"I did not think about it [Sunday], no," he said.

Shurmur indicated he didn't consider it because he thought the problems were more systemic.

"You always consider in the ballgame whatever gives you the best chance to win the football game and as I mentioned we were [up] 14-10 at halftime," he said. "And I don't think we as a team played our best football. And so we came out and we were getting the football with the idea that we were starting over with a four-point lead.

"And then things happened in the game of course that made it not so. There's all kinds of conversation and all kinds of thoughts being bounced around. I'm not saying you never go to your backup quarterback, but I didn't consider it yesterday."

He said he's not concerned that Weeden, 29, is too old to try to develop.

"I haven't thought about his age once this year," said Shurmur. "No, I don't think that's the case. I think of him as a rookie and I think he'll be much better in his second year."

In addition to the interceptions, Weeden overthrew Josh Gordon on a deep ball on his first series, sailed one over Mohamed Massaquoi's head later in the quarter and threw behind Gordon in the flat. He did heat up at the end of the first half to complete three straight crosses for five, 12 and 30 yards that led to a Richardson TD, and threw a beautiful 69-yard strike to Travis Benjamin in full stride in the fourth quarter.

But the good plays were overshadowed by the errors. Weeden has a league-high 21 batted balls, according to profootballfocus.com. Weeden said Sunday he has no answer for the deflections, which come mostly on shallow crosses after a quick three-step drop.

"What's important is we just keep looking to throw the ball in lanes," said Shurmur. "It's very hard to throw over guys. It happens at times, but we've just keep working on it and try to eliminate them."

He acknowledged that most were on the crosses, "but one was on an intermediate throw. The other was on a quick screen when [Ryan] Kerrigan batted it down. Those happen when the defender is unblocked.

"There are times when the rush just stops and puts their hands up. Now we have to do a good job of making sure the ball gets through. There are many reasons balls get batted down and we've tipped balls as well."

Kerrigan, who batted down two, including on a third-and-9 in the third quarter, said Sunday the coaches saw things on film that led to the swats.

"On the one on third down, they turned me free off the edge and I saw the back scat out, so I figured it was either a screen pass or they were dumping it to him," he said. "So I just tried to get my hands up and was able to make the play. I got the one earlier in the game, and it was just a good job by our coaches putting me in the right position. We knew they liked to throw bubble screens out of that formation, so I was able to make a play."

Shurmur said the failed fourth-and-3 from the Redskins 41 in the third quarter, on which Weeden rolled left and threw the ball away, was like a third turnover.

"They did a nice job covering us," said Shurmur. "They played man-to-man. We had a man route. We didn't wiggle free, and then he tried to scramble and make a play and it didn't work out."

Overall, Weeden completed 21 of 35 attempts for 244 yards, with one TD and two INTs for a 66.8 rating. He's 32nd in the NFL with a 72.4 rating and has thrown the second-most interceptions with 17. Drew Brees and Andrew Luck each have 18.

Sunday, he'll face the league's fourth-ranked defense, once that's eighth against the pass.

Shurmur said Sunday that he didn't think Weeden had suffered a setback, that it was just not his best game. Monday, he declined to share his grade off the coaches' film.

"What's important is that we all try to do what we can to play winning football, and we didn't," Shurmur said. "I think the same can be said for a lot of the team."

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